Inspired by a comment from La Ciecaon one of my recent facebook statuses…here is the opening of my greeting to all my fellow Koken, cast, and creative staff tonight, on Opening Night of San Francisco Opera’s Madama Butterfly:

My responses to La Cieca’squizzes and inquiries are often worthy fodder for re-posting here on jcm. Her current call for nomineesis for“your favorite opera diva of this generation,”from which the surpreme list of ten will be crafted.

The acceptable career range is onstage between 1980 and 2010, BUT I took it upon myself to discluded any divas who had a large part of their primes BEFORE 1980 (begrudgingly discluding the queens of my Diva Totem: Price, Caballé, Ludwig, etc.), because they are really Golden Age holdovers, NOT really divas of THIS generation. For each the notable attributes are highlighted.

Here goes…they are essentially in order of my nomination, but I felt they were just too equal to assign a number to. Which of your favorites, or other truly deserving divas (OF THIS GENERATION!) have I left off?

Brace yourself for this historic and tragic first-ever NorCal gathering ofparterre.com fans and followers! La Cieca has sanctioned it with an amusing post. We hope you can join us…I know I’m just itchin’ to get on with it. Opera fanciers, queens and lovers are encouraged and welcome too.

What?

A SF/Bay Area parterre.com Soirée…dare I say: Demented Mini-Conference? Perhaps our fair Queen Mum herself, La Cieca will descend upon our happy occasion and lead us in some gaiety. Although, Nilsson, Tebaldi and Rysanek’s attendance is more likely.

Where?

Location details: eastern tip of Stow Lake island, just south of Stow Lake waterfall, just southwest of the red star on this map.

We can mosey over to the Verdi Statue, towards the end for “Va Pensiero” and a knelt adoration. And, I’ll be sure to pass by the Beethoven Statue too on the walk home to make sure he doesn’t feel left out.

When?

What to bring?

Please bring something to share, by last name, as below. (If you object or have a terribly pinched wallet, you are still welcome to come, but please let me know.) Opera-or-Chinoiserie-related themes encouraged, but random, store-bought lameness fine too:

Activities

All (good/festive/opera-related ideas) welcome! I plan to shoot a Wenarto-inspired video shoot, involving those who are interested. If you have any operatic accessories (particularly Chinese), please bring/wear them to spice up our video.

Music

My iPod will be chock full of apropos selections, but feel free to bring yours as well, if you’re compelled. Again, orientalism encouraged (given our setting).

If we find a bevy of pigeons or a rival encampment has already inhabited the pagoda, we’ll be forced to shift our location, so it’s best if you RSVP beforehand, so I can give you my cell phone number, in case we should need to move.

Although a winner hasn’t been announced, happily, my entry was featured today on parterre.com: Darkest Before the Dawn

[UPDATE: I won! My video received the winning prize worth $200.00, and cries of “Bravissimo!,”“genius,” “brilliant,” “poignant” and “hilarious.” Woo-hoo!]

The song is opera diva Renée Fleming’s recent crossover single “Endlessly” (originally by Muse). It was GOBS of fun to create…a tragic tranny mess? Visionary? You be the judge, but it’s nothing if not fun. Plus, I didn’t know I was a blonde (the look chosen to APPROXIMATE the album cover)…the results proved me SO wrong.

104 Posts Later

In the midst of the buzz of the Vancouver Olympics, and following on the heels of Chinese New YearandV-day festivities, there is another notable, although perhaps somewhat smaller scale event occurring…jcm’sone year anniversary!

I take this moment to step back and survey the view on this first whirlwind year in the blogosphere. For many years I admired and enjoyed the outspoken thoughts of such bloggers and online community hosts as Malibran and the queens at Queer Opera Punks (now largely dormant), Aaron atAL&S, and La Cieca atparterre.com. Taking a page from their books, and a good dose of their inspiration, I launched jcm because I felt I too had something to say, with a unique perspective to offer, both informative and enlightening. It has proven to be a very satisfying creative outlet and communication tool for me.

Thank you for reading, commenting, and returning again! I’ve very much enjoyed connecting with you here…hearing reader’s perspectives, and getting to know other bloggers touting similar or parallel topics.

Most Clicks:
The website link with the most clicks:Required Elements, in my “rink links” sidebar (with AL&Sa very close second). The video link with the most clicks:the Duchesnays’90 Worlds FD! Who’d-a-thunk-it?

Top Ten Search Terms (in descending order)cheeseburger— Huh?! It was the nickname of my character in “Hair”: Berger2010 vancouver olympics— No surprise here!drag me to hell— 2009 Horror film directed by Sam Raimijohnny weir boyfriend — Way more interesting (and elusive) than Evan’s latesttara donovan— An American installation artistmichelle kwan— Only the most famous figure skater of the past two decadesadelina sotnikova — 2009 Russian National Championno night is too long— 2002 titillating BBC gay flickelvis stojko— Really? People still care?heidi melton— I’m very pleased people are getting Melton updates here!

What Next?

Who knows what bloggin’ the next year of livin’ will inspire. But, if it’s even half as enticing as what the past year brought, I’m sticking with this! Perhaps a new blog look is in order? We shall see.

I’ve periodically thought about specializing in one particular subject (ie: just skating, just opera, etc.), to try to attract a demographic or more followers, but that wouldn’t be true to me and my schizophrenic interests.

So, plenty of diverse events, shows, and life experiences linger, and just may inspire me to post: the Vancouver Games, Torino Worlds, the threesixty° production of Peter Pan, the SFO productions of The Girl of the Golden West and Die Walküre, my BIG four-ohhhhhh, and more!

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